In some processes, fully assembled absorbent articles are packaged in containers for shipment and distribution to customers. Typically, the absorbent articles are packaged in primary packaging, for example, polybags, which are then placed into secondary packaging such as cardboard containers. The manufacturer may provide printed indicia on either or both of the primary packaging and secondary packaging, depending on which is intended to be the product ultimately purchased by a consumer. The cardboard container may be shipped to a retailer and placed on shelf, then a consumer purchases the container, takes it home, and then opens the container and disposes of it. Alternately, the consumer may purchase the container via e-commerce, for example, online through the internet, and the container is shipped directly to the consumer. In yet another alternative, the retailer may open the container and place the individual polybags of absorbent articles on a shelf for sale, and likely stack them to save space and/or to create a display. After taking the product home, the consumer typically opens the container, if any, and then opens the polybag containing the absorbent articles, removes all or some of the absorbent articles and then places them in yet another container such as a diaper bag or similar container attached or placed proximately to a changing table, from which they are retrieved at the point of use.
The containers for housing or containing the absorbent articles may be provided by a manufacturer. The containers are typically supplied in a flat configuration, referred to as flats. Further, these flats are supplied in a stack of several flats. Thus, upon visual inspection of the stack of flats it is difficult to identify which flats fail to meet acceptable quality standards. More specifically, one or more of the flats may have manufacturing defects that result in the container being unacceptable to house one or more absorbent articles. Defects may include, for example, the size of the panels and the gap between adjacent panels. However, because these defects are not immediately identifiable at the time the containers are supplied to the manufacturing line, a defective container may cause added cost and complexity to the manufacturing process. For example, removing a defective container from the manufacturing line may result in the line having to be stopped, which may be costly for manufacturers. In an additional example, a defective container may prove to be unacceptable for stacking product on store shelves or transporting product to suppliers.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for identifying defective containers and/or correcting the issues of the defective containers prior to packaging the absorbent articles.